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Wow the intro scene to FFX is whack. What did I just watch? I have zero memories of the plot of this game beyond that I thought the gameplay was really fun but teenage-me was too hung up on Tidus being a huge dork and (probably) a lack of a spoon-fed plot, if the intro is any indication, to really enjoy the story component. The voice acting is indeed horrible and that's evident out the gate, but that intro was awesome. I'm kind of excited, because I do have a lot of positive feelings associated with this game. I remember disliking both 8 and 10 on the whole, but I loathed 8. 10 simply failed to live up to my potentially highly unrealistic expectations. On replay of 8, I did find some enjoyable aspects, but I had to struggle and sort of sell myself on them. I have high hopes that the ride through 10 will be a lot more immediately positive. I wouldn't even say I'm "cautiously optimistic" here; I think I'm going to enjoy this game a lot. We'll see how that pans out over the next few weeks. I'm probably going to have to set it aside until next weekend after what I can get through now.

Also, FF9 closed out as super meh as I remembered, but I don't think that's a huge blemish on the game as a whole. It finished weak but it was still a great game. They screwed up one thing in the ending cut scenes though; everyone else has clearly aged a few years, but Eiko is still six!

Eiko clearly has dwarfism. I don't think I ever actually completed IX, because the plot just sort of forgot to happen at around disc 3. It's a pretty decent title, worth a replay if I get a spare minute, but I eventually just couldn't be arsed to dungeon-crawl the fourth or fifth plotless locale. I liked the game better before I had the airship, which is strange to say.

XII has a similar problem; roundabout halfway through, the so-called "lead" character is relegated as an extra and the soldier and the princess take center stage (don't recall either one's name). Good characters, but the pacing of the plot just starts spinning tires in the mud while you're dungeon-crawling one place after the next, each one feeling like a last-minute decision by the developers with little forethought.

IV does this too. Little bit faster pacing, and I do like the story, but it drags around halfway through. I'd be perfectly satisfied if they'd just cut some content if it kept the pacing more consistent, even if it meant a shorter game.

X, though it was hugely hyped, was a letdown for me as far as the voice-acting goes. Also tell me; what is the point in an option to rename your character in a voice-acted game? Just so that everyone else in the story can dance around ever having to address him by name? Aside from adding a high degree of unnecessary challenge for the writers, I found it entirely moot. In FFI, and even FFIII, it made a bit more sense; the characters are less personalities and more just avatars meant to inject you more into the experience yourself, so naming them helps personalise them, considering their skills and roles are then in your hands as well. But Tidus? Just let these people speak his name, for Christsake. X was a pretty ambitious game for its time, and packed some crazy tough boss fights, especially in the second half. I remember Yunalesca making me almost throw in the towel. That big scary ass Medusa head was top, I liked the design, but it grew maddening with each game over screen. No matter how big a letdown X may have been, at least remember it begins with the insane ruin of an entire city. Its sequel? Begins with a J-pop concert. Umwat

VIII simply needs a remake. That game did not age well. I cannot be arsed to sit through those long fadeouts every single time I leave the screen. The big "plot twist" was the most contrived bollocks I've ever seen, too. I don't understand so many people's fanboyism for Squall, either. Seventeen years old? GTFO of here. Nobody's that jaded at seventeen. Not a mote of youthful ambition to be found in his whole body. I know fortysomethings with years of hardship under their belt who could teach this little puff a lesson in how not to be the most depressing group leader of all time. The whole cast is about as likeable as Jersey Shore's. A teen girl named "Selphie"? Should have done one over and named Zell "Roidreige", Seifer "Alfameile", Squall "Eimough", etc. Laguna was fair, though; I actually looked forward to his segments. He didn't make me roll my eyes or facepalm nearly as much. I blame some of it on translation issues, but that can't always be an excuse. I don't know; suppose it's dependent on the player, but I just can't relate too well to these angsty dingbats.

I found a few hours to pick FFX back up and did the cloister of trials thing where you meet Yuna and co. I think it's hilarious how it just faded to a scene with Tidus talking to himself saying "After that night, everything changed", as if we aren't only 24 hours removed from a giant water monster destroying your city and teleporting you 1000 years into the future.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who found their younger and present selves have different takes on the games. I played VII not too long after it came out and I loved it then, but when I replayed it(and VIII) around...3 or 4 years ago I think, I found VII extremely disappointing. Didn't find any reason to care about any of the characters, good or bad. I loved how they all looked so cute as legos, but other than that, VIII was the better of the two for me, even with its issues. That theory of Rinoa really being the troublemaker behind of all of it reminds me of how I felt a case could be made that Tifa was really the villain of VII, since she knows the truth about Cloud but never does anything about it until long after Sephiroth gets the black materia and kills Aerith.

As for X, I had the same confusion when I started playing it for the first time, I was like WTF is it? What's going on? It quickly blossomed into my favorite game of the entire franchise. I never had a problem with the voice acting either, maybe because I hadn't played any of the FF games in so long when I first played it maybe like 8 years ago, and the opening threw me so much I was actually paying full attention to the story to figure out what was happening. Of course I'll freely admit that it's things that reminds me of Xena(Braska's pilgrimage taking place TEN YEARS AGO prior to Yuna's pilgrimage), Firefly/Serenity(when Home gets blown up and you're fleeing in the airship, that reminds me of escaping the Reavers in the beginning, and when Rikku uses a flash bomb to escape the wedding), and Futurama.

How do you do the solid black lines for spoilers?

Yes, I like Reno's character quite well. If you don't, that's your problem, not mine.

I still have quite a ways to go--just played through the Sin attack in Luca after the Blitzball tournament--but I can see this happening. FFs 4, 6, and 7 were somewhat "spoiled" in so far as I played them too much as kids to ever forget them, and I think that inevitably detracted from their replay value, but for better or worse I am enjoying FFX the most of any game in the franchise up to this point.

Okay thanks. And I should clarify, of all the FF games I've played, X is my favorite. I've played 1-8, X, X-2, and XII. Haven't played 9 or 11, or any other installments since XII, because that pretty much ruined the entire franchise for me, but that was just me. Replay value for X hasn't stopped yet, I'm doing a run of challenges now. Just finished Tidus only, now I'm on Kimahri only. Next is Tidus/Yuna OSG challenge. Oh and after X, I'd have to say III is my favorite. The original III with the Onion Kids. I also enjoyed Final Fantasy Mystic Quest for its simplicity when I don't feel like playing anything serious.

I think my only real complaint about FFX so far is that the enemies have a habit of awkwardly delaying their attacks to give you an opportunity to use save spheres. I kind of wish it would just activate the opportunity to save and then force you into combat sometimes, because it really detracts from the immersion to be on the brink of a powerful enemy about to whoop you or guards about to take you prisoner and then just have free reign to roam around and take your time.

That being said, I think I'm in the back third of the game at this point and feel pretty strongly that it's my favorite title in the franchise on replay, so cheers to that.

There are certain parts where if I get too far from the save sphere I'm hurting, and that's when just as I'm about to be able to touch it and recharge my characters, fiends attack. But I also love how games build up a story where you have to fight the Big Bad NOW or the world will be destroyed, but they give you side quests and such where you can take a week or two off without affecting anything. Too bad we can't do that in real life, just basically hit a pause button on whatever is bothering you and just sit back and party for a while

Hoping your run-through of the games is going well. You still on XI? Are you going to play X-2? I'm still waiting for an apology from SE for that...I know alot of people like it, but I'm not one of them.